The Venture Codex

Participated · Series C · Nov 2020

Founded in 2014 and based in Chicago, Loadsmart builds automation and machine-learning systems to price, book, and move freight. Its platform matches loads to a network of over 680,000 trucks, employs a pricing model that considers 400+ parameters, and uses dynamic pricing to react to market shifts. Product features include GPS-guided cargo tracking, carrier screening for safety standards, and automated classification of shipping documents. The company has expanded via acquisitions (Kamion and Opendock), launched mode-optimization and a Home Depot-integrated marketplace, and opened a 35,000-square-foot headquarters. Loadsmart reported strong recent growth — 232% year-over-year revenue growth in Q2 2021 (32% quarter-over-quarter) and 114% year-over-year growth in Q3 2021 — with gross revenues north of $250 million and a projection to double in the next 12 months. It employed 581 people and says its gross margin profile is roughly double that of direct competitors. Loadsmart is an on-demand digital freight platform that lets customers book transportation across land, rail and ports from a single online portal. It recently added the ability to ship partial truckloads. The company plans to use new funding to continue building out its platform to offer more end-to-end logistics services. Loadsmart said it will pursue part of that expansion through a new collaboration with strategic investor TFI International. The company reported revenue growth of 250% across 2020 while keeping operating expenses flat. Loadsmart framed its growth as organic, contrasting its approach with competitors that it said subsidize customers’ freight spend. Loadsmart is a digital freight platform specializing in truckload and intermodal shipping. Co‑founded by Ricardo Salgado (CEO) and Felipe Capella (CPO), the company is based in Chicago and New York City. It leverages data and machine learning to build AI-driven processes into the freight cycle, enabling shippers to book a truck in seconds and providing instant, targeted loads to carriers. The company offers a web-based instant booking service for small and medium-sized shippers and an API-integrated solution for enterprise accounts. Loadsmart recently launched Loadsmart Drayage Instant Booking and is focusing on a Smart Drayage initiative funded by its latest raise. The firm’s financing position includes the new $19M round and prior rounds totaling $53.4M to date. Loadsmart is a NYC-based digital freight broker that leverages artificial intelligence to automate the truckload booking flow in the United States. It provides instant prices to shippers with capacity guaranteed on all U.S. lanes and offers manual booking or server-to-server API integration for automated bookings with no human intervention. The company was co-founded by Ricardo Salgado and Felipe Capella. Loadsmart plans to use the Series A proceeds to scale its operations team and double down on product and engineering. The company has raised a total of $34.7M to date. It also signed a strategic partnership with funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management to explore mutually beneficial collaboration.

Led · Seed · Sep 2019

Forager is a venture-backed technology company in Chicago that provides cross-border solutions to the logistics industry. Its core product is SCOUT by Forager, launched in October 2019, described as the industry’s first comprehensive cross-border pricing and booking portal that can instantly book, track, and manage loads between the US, Mexico, and Canada with exception management from a multilingual operations team. The company announced an update to SCOUT in Spring 2020 and plans additional products later in 2020. Forager intends to ramp up engineering and product hiring and add logistics experts to accelerate product development. The company has made key executive appointments, including Marc Kiven as President and Eric Lunt joining the board, and has been named to FreightWaves’ "FreightTech 100" and other startup watch lists. As of this financing, Forager has raised a total of $14.5 million since launch. Forager is launching ForagerSCS.com, a technology platform that brings on-demand pricing and capacity to cross-border freight between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The customer portal provides instant pricing, booking for cross-border loads, and regular tracking updates. To support the product build and technology strategy, Forager appointed Matt Weber as CTO to lead product innovation and an experienced development team. CEO Matt Silver framed the platform as a way to better manage historically opaque cross-border processes. The company recently rebranded by dropping "Logistics" from its name and introducing a new logo and URL to reflect its mission. Forager is venture-backed and closed a $3.25M Seed round to support growth and the technology launch. The company announced the updates from Chicago.